North Korean nuclear scientists apparently ignored warnings from a group of Chinese colleaugues who briefed them back in September that the North’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site was slowly imploding following the country’s sixth nuclear test, which involved a 100-kiloton hydrogen bomb

Stumbling UK Economy Shows Importance of Gold – UK economy outlook bleak amid Brexit, debt woes and rising inflation– Confidence in UK housing market at five-year low– UK high street sales crash at fastest rate since 2009– Number registering as insolvent

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders delivered the administration’s official response to yesterday’s developments in Special Counsel Bob Mueller’s probe into collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during a press conference yesterday, but just in case anybody has any doubts

Iran has started work on two $10 billion nuclear reactors in the Bushehr nuclear power plant, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported on Monday citing Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. Work on the two reactors “will

US national home prices are up 6.07% YoY in August – the fastest rate since June 2014. We note this data is for August – before the hurricanes. Seattle (up 13.2 percent), Las Vegas (up 8.6 percent), and San Diego (up

A couple of days ago we noted the efforts of “wacky and totally unhinged Tom Steyer” (Trump’s description, not ours) to impeach President Trump.  The effort revolved around the launch of a $10 million campaign, which included a commercial during the

Via Dana Lyons’ Tumblr, On an equal-weight basis, the Nasdaq 100 just dropped to a relative all-time low. There are many ways to measure the level of participation, i.e., the number of stocks that are taking part, in a stock market

As the mainstream contonues to embrace cryptocurrencies – much to the chagrin of Jamie Dimon et al. in the establishment – CME Group is “responding to client interest” and launching a Bitcoin Futures contract in Q4. CME Group says new contract

The currency market is hot and many investors are attracted, but “What we’re looking at is a new technology that people are still trying to understand,” says Mathew Gertler of Digital Asset Research and compares it to the Internet in 1994.

Far more important than any corporate earnings or central bank announcements this week, will be Trump’s widely telegraphed and trial ballooned choice who will replace Janet Yellen, and as Politico writes, that announcement is likely to come on Thursday. As Politico